Shrink wrapped duckling - A traumatic duckling hatch

Emergency assistance was required to hatch these shrink-wrapped ducklings that the mother duck abandoned 3 days before hatching. It was a traumatic hatching for the little ducklings, but an amazing experience for me as I was able to help hatch out beautiful little ducklings that are now strong and healthy.
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Hatching ducks is best left to nature and mother duck. However, sometimes nature turns on it self and hatching ducks becomes our duty to save a generation of little ducklings, as was the case in this instance.
Video timeline:
00:00 - Introduction & Overview
01:46 - Creating a breathing hole of unhatched ducklings
03:24 - Manually hatching a duckling
06:56 - Newly hatched ducklings
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For more updates and info visit my website - my-sustainability-journey.com/
#duckling #ducklings #hatching

[@tbird82kh]

I’m so glad I’m not the only one that has had to do that. I always hear people saying to not intervene with nature but I never had the heart to just let them go if they couldn’t make it. I wrapped them in a warm damp cloth and held them in front of a heater as I worked them out. I have found they do very well with egg yolk on the tip of my finger. Love my ducks!!!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah, I love this comment, thank you 💚 Yes, I am firmly in that camp of helping if we can. Just because the mom gave up, doesn't mean we should and my duckies were perfect. Thank you for sharing the same point of view and I hope you have lots of happiness with your new ducklings 🌻

[@Bella-ex9hk]

I literally had to do that with 3 that 1 was hatching out the wrong end 1 had it’s feet up so it couldn’t kick the egg away and 1 almost suffocated by hatching out of the opposite direction of its air pocket and they are all healthy and doing great if I have to intervene I will no matter what I won’t let them die

[@elizabethgervasi]

Thank you. Our babies made it because of your video.❤

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Aaaahhhh, this is the best news EVER!!! So glad to hear this video helped you hatch out your babies 💚🌻

[@Selvirabrooks]

I’m so happy they all made it out safely. People who want the best for their animals do everything they can to help. They are adorable. The internet is full of mixed info with makes it hard to know what is the best thing to do. Ducklings take 24-48 hours (much longer than chickens) to pip. So if they are introduced to air before they are ready it can cause a bit of a shrink wrap, and it’s like they are glued to the membrane. Keeping the humidity around 70% during the last 3 days is important. There’s an extension university class on this, I’ll try to find the recording on it to help with future hatches.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh wow thanks so much for leaving such a detailed reply 💚 yeah, we waited and waited and they just couldn't get through. It was almost certainly down to the humidity as mommy duck abandoned the eggs and I found them the next morning and they were cold, so it's amazing we even managed to get any of them out. I would love to go through that resource if you are able to find it 🌻🌻🌻

[@VaultedHistory]

I needed this! you just saved 2 chcks lives thankyouu!!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh yaaaaay, I am so incredibly happy to hear this and that it helped you save your little chicks 🌻

[@maddytheunissen8443]

I am blown away!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

It was such an incredible experience and one most people will never get to experience. It was as rough as it was beautiful 💚

[@iStaceyS]

I love this! Trying to hatch some babies in our classroom, hatching day is quickly approaching! 🐣 getting nervous but these kind of videos help prepare me just in case they might need my help!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah, what a special time for you and I am so glad you stumbled across my experience and that it may come in handy for you. Hope your hatchings go down without a hitch and you get to enjoy their cuteness stage 🌻

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

How cute.Spoiled, sweet little babies got hand fed

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

It was such an amazing experience 💚

[@sherwoodurbanfarmsouthafri8709]

Well done with helping your ducklings to hatch out! We've recently had to help some of our Australorp chicks hatch out. Ours were in an incubator so we felt that if one has intervened in the brooding process then it's sort of our responsibility to intervene in the hatching process too. After all, these are not wild animals.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thank you so much 💚 I totally agree with you! We tried to go natural and mom abandoned the eggs 3 days before hatching. There was simply no way I was going to leave them. I have issue intervening when it comes to the wellbeing of my animals. It's so refreshing to hear there are others, like yourself, that value all the little lives! Wiahing you many a yummy egg harvest 🌻

[@sherwoodurbanfarmsouthafri8709]

@@moongypsyguerrero1925 for sure, we plan to hatch out ducks next.

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

They're adorable ♥️

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Aren't they just 💚

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

@@MySustainabilityJourney 🐣🐥🧡

[@LechLecha893]

& now they grow up to be healthy, happy dinners

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Yip they ended up as dinner but a caracal dinner 😳 the wild cats took them all out in 2 nights. Shame 😔

[@stzxvkzzn]

So you went through all this effort to save them, but then left them exposed to predators?

[@thedouglaspodcast]

First time?!? Y’all look like mf PROS!!! Hats off to you ♥️♥️♥️ my first hatching is in five days and I’m very nervous 😭 lolol hence how I ended up on videos of what could go wrong 🥲

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Aw, thank you 💚 yeah it was quite a stressful time figuring things out we we went along but at least you know a bit more in preparation for your little babies hatching out. Wishing you a really easy and successful hatching 🌻🌻🌻

[@dawndoliber2663]

Hi, we had to bring eggs inside after being sat on by a chicken. We incubated a little over a week. How do I know if they’re shrink wrapped? They just broke through last night.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! For me it was timing. I know that since the internal pip where they break through their sak (you should use a torch for that) and they start to peck the inside of the shell to when they hatch is 24 hrs. After 24hrs those ones either didn't make progress in breaking through the shell or they couldn't break through the shell. After 24hrs they can suffocate so we had to do something and then only did we find out. There are probably more scientific ways, but this is what I did and I hope this helps 🌻

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

Adorables ❣️

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Aren't they just 💚

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

What about removing some of the shell and some membrane and putting a damp warm towel,or napkin around the rest of the egg and put him back into the incubator and getting him do the rest of the work?Were they too weak?

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Really good suggestion you have there and I would have loved to have done that but there were 2 issues for me. The first is that this was all unplanned as we didn't even know we had fertile eggs and we didn't have an incubator. Secondly we were undergoing intense power cuts in South Africa during that time and we were without power for up to 12 hrs a day which would have made an incubator not feasible, but if it was planned and there weren't power cuts then this would have been the best possible route to take 🌻

[@Nirmal-qo8gw]

Very interesting video 😲🙂. I wish I had seen this video sooner. I’m hatching Runner Ducks at the moment, and one was in the middle of hatching, but unfortunately it never moved or made a sound. I only have 3 eggs left, hoping they’ll successfully hatch🙏🤞🐣.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah, no, it's so sad when this happens to the little fella's. How did the full hatching end up going? Are they all going strong now? Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment with your experiences 🌻

[@Nirmal-qo8gw]

@@MySustainabilityJourney Hello , unfortunately they all died and became quitters🥺😢. So I’m going to start again and maybe hatch some chicken eggs. If not duck eggs again. It’s upsetting because I really wanted to prove that I can succeed at something😫. Hope your 3 eggs hatch successfully 👍🙂. Thanks for your comment 🙂.

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

@@Nirmal-qo8gw oh Jo, that's so sad 😭 I managed to get 5 to survive and then they grew up beautifully and all got taken out by a Caracal so I also lost all of mine. They simply refused to go into the chicken house at night, no matter what we did. I have 8 more chickens on the way. They seem to be a lot easier to work with 🌻

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

Incredible.Ithought that they didn't have to eat for the first three days after their birth because of the yolk that absorbs into their body

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me 🌻 They actually only had water for the first 2 days. On day 3 we added food just in case and where you see them eating food they are 5 days old already. Such a beautiful experience 💚

[@slowmochicken]

Thank you SO MUCH. I'm going thru this tonight. Edit : what did you feed them? Thanks again!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Oh wow, then I'm super happy you found this video and it gave you some insight how we got through it! I hope you win and the little one's make it through 💚 I fed them chick mash, which is a super fine food as they cannot eat anything chunky yet. Good luck 🌻

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

Do you have to pierce a hole through the egg through both membranes?

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Good question and absolutely, yes! The inside membrane is the most important one to pierce as that's the one that runs out of air and also shrink wraps them🌻

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

So that blood isn't because of nicked blood vessels?

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Good question! It is probably a very small one and the big ones you can very clearly see. If you knick those the duckling will most likely bleed out. There really wasn't much blood at all as the blood and nutrients transfer from the shell into the duckling and I'm sure that was mostly left over blood in very small vessels that came out 🌻

[@julietalw]

OK I'm starting the peeling process 🤐

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Wishing you all the luck in the world and I hope they all make it through 🌻

[@allisonbrown4805]

How long did it take for them to pull out of the rest of the egg? I am going through this with one right now thank you so much for your video! Helped me a lot

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Ah, what a special time for you! It took mine around 2hrs to get out and for the yolk to completely get absorbed into the duckling. Wishing you all the best with your hatching 🌻

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

Should've put those little guys back in the incubator after helping them out of the eggs

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

I would have loved to do that and it would have loved to have done that but we don't have one and on top of that we have load shedding (rolling blackouts) here in South Africa, which means the incubator wouldn't have worked in any case

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

@@MySustainabilityJourney Oh, sorry about that.

[@koeltefontein]

Yes on a two hour loadshedding I use n hotwater bottel in my incubator but if its four to six hours you have trouble.

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

How are they now,how is their sight?🐣🐤🦆

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Unfortunately both of the blind ones didn't make it 😔

[@osimsarkar3484]

Can you tal me sir ? How dayas again a coll duck baby bron a egg . When coll buch egg hassing a hen ? 😊

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

I'm sorry I am not sure what you are asking, can you please clarify for me?

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

What happened to the two who were born blind?!

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Shame, they both ended up dying 😭 I assume it was because of a lack of food and water at such a young age and we couldn't look after them 24/7 🌻

[@osimsarkar3484]

How day again a coll chicks baby bron ? ❤

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

Sorry can you please clarify what you are asking? I am not completely sure what you are asking.

[@moongypsyguerrero1925]

What does he think he's supposed to do with animals with disabilities?Help them,and feed them ‼️

[@MySustainabilityJourney]

They ended up not making it 😢 Nature will do what it intends so I will only facilitate up to a point and from there on out it was nature doing what it needs to do 🌻

[@allisonbrown4805]

​@My Sustainability Journey none of them made it?